"Reading" e-mail without "opening" it?
 

So... in Outlook Express, with a received e-mail, I've noticed that you can do the following:

right-click/properties;
then click the "details" tab;
then message source...

...and you can essentially read the e-mail, some bits code, some bits in plain english.
My question is this. Is this the same thing as actually opening it the normal way, i.e. would a malicious piece of work or virus-type piece of mail still cause trouble on one's computer?

I hope my question is clear, and less dumb than I feel it must be. Either way, thanks for reading.

Using the method described by you should be pretty safe. When you click "message Source" what you are seeing is just plain text. In other words nothing is being executed, so it would not be possible to get a virus.

I think.

Yep, I'd agree. Message source never hurt anyone. An alternative method would be to get an email client that isn't as prone to as many problems as is OE ;-)

Thanks for your thoughts, you two. I appreciate it.
The OE is not my primary email client, btw. I was curious, more than anything. Cheers!